The oral health care industry is a large industry with trillions of dollars of market scale, and with the growth of the aging population and the number of oral diseases, the industry demand continues to rise, the market size also grows. Under the general trend, the metal polishing and other dental restorative materials processing industry is also growing steadily and moving toward full digital automation.
Dental 3D metal printing
The metal materials commonly used in oral prosthetics are divided into three categories: precious metals, semi-precious metals and non-precious metals. The oral cavity is a special environment, the metal materials used for restoration need to have high strength, corrosion resistance, high biosafety and other characteristics, and non-precious metal materials such as cobalt-chromium alloy, pure titanium and titanium alloy are the most cost-effective and least harmful to the human body.
Before the advent of metal additive manufacturing, the process of making metal restorative materials such as dental frames was very cumbersome. First, the patient’s mouth had to be molded by taking trays and impressions, and then the patient’s mouth had to be irrigated to create the restorative material. The extraction process can be uncomfortable for the patient and the fabrication of the material can be very time consuming and labor intensive. The cycle time for making the metal restorative materials from inversion to subsequent manual polishing can range from a few days to a week, making production less efficient and less consistent.
After the emergence of metal additive manufacturing and its application to the dental field, the production of dental restorative materials has entered the “fast track”. The current process of 3D printed metal restorative dentistry is scanning – modeling – 3D printing processing – polishing. Digital dental model scanning enhances patient comfort, reduces errors in impression taking and model irrigation and transportation, makes restorations more accurate, and saves time in model transportation. At the same time, the digital design and automated processing of dental frames can reduce labor costs, increase processing speed, stabilize product quality, and improve productivity. With the support of metal additive manufacturing, highly customized dental restorative materials for each patient become a reality.
Automated metal polishing
Metal polishing can remove the scratches and original irregular surface left by processing, so that the surface of the restoration presents a glossy, increase the aesthetic comfort, improve the surface gloss of the restoration, reduce plaque accumulation and extend the life of the restoration. In the traditional mode, manual polishing dental frame requires multiple steps such as sandblasting, rough polishing, fine polishing, electrolysis, cleaning, brightening and adjustment etc. It is time consuming, high labor cost and not environmentally friendly. Therefore, fully automatic metal polishing equipment becomes the best choice for processing metal dental restorative materials.
Developed by Weshining, a leading manufacturer in metal polishing, the automated polishing system provides the industry with revolutionary metal polishing technology, perfectly handling the blind areas that cannot be reached by hand polishing, and progressively finishes the metal surface, ultimately achieving a uniform, high gloss mirror finish metal polishing.
The combination of both 3D metal printing and automatic metal polishing can create a one-stop production line from design and production to polishing, fully realizing the transformation of digital automation in manufacturing, eliminating instability, significantly increasing production capacity and ensuring uniform high-quality production of products.
Click here for more information about Weshining Polishing Machine.
